Once upon a time in Europe, I met Jessica {of Greenleaf & Blueberry}. As roommates on our study abroad program, we immediately hit it off, successfully bringing out strange quirks in each other that rendered our fellow study abroad participants squeamish and confused. Jess’s affectionate nickname for me was “Pooky Bella” — “Pooky” because it’s the sort of name you just don’t call me due to my type-A, serious personality; and “Bella” because we heard it all over the streets of Italy from amorous Italian stallions. Once, we tried to survive on just leek broth for an entire day, that should have been three days, that actually only ended up being a morning. For several wonderful weeks, we shared custody of a small, plastic-bodied cereal box toy that must people would recognize as “The Joker” from Batman, but we christened him Edgar and hauled him around Europe, taking ample photos of him. {Edgar has now passed, but his memory lives on.}

In short, Jessica brought out my playful side. Despite the fact that we lived together for a few months, though, I don’t think either of us had any idea that both of us were artists. It was only recently that we both discovered each other’s talents. Of course, as soon as I figured out the amazing things Jessica could do after being stunned by the amazingness of her Etsy shop, I basically demanded she write a blog post for me over how to make her handbound field books. And, holy Edgar, did she deliver beyond my expectations! If you’re ready to learn how to create your own handmade book, read on! Enjoy Jess’s beautiful, informative photos and lighthearted writing {I know I did} … and see if you can spot the band-aid, oops!:

Bookbinding Tutorial by Jessica of Greenleaf & Blueberry

Bookbinding may appear a daunting endeavor at first consideration, but so it is with most worthwhile pursuits. Here are two alleviatory ways of approaching this:

1) My first experience in booking was in my 4th grade art class. No kidding. They gave all of us kiddies hammers, nails, needles, and glue. And it didn’t end in disaster. Some books looked better than others, it’s true, but each of us came out of that class with a reasonably functional book.

2) Think of bookbinding like making croissants from scratch. It appears difficult when viewed in its entirety- croissant recipes are always so long! But if you take it step by step, you will end up with croissants. And, if you venture to bake them again, it will be easier than the first time and the results will be better. My first experience making croissants was right after I moved to Washington. I was living in a yurt next to the forest with only the belongings that had managed to fit into my pickup truck and a small pull-behind Uhaul (this included boyfriend and dog). There was plumbing. Sort of. In places. There was a toaster oven, a mini fridge, and a single-coil hot plate. That was the kitchen. However, that somehow didn’t deter me from making the decision to bake croissants from scratch one afternoon. (What can I say- once you’ve enjoyed croissants in Paris you are forever changed. And that change can manifest itself in odd ways. Like scouring small American towns for decent croissants or attempting to bake them when you have little more than an electric outlet and a stick of butter in your favor.) Anyway, I assembled my ingredients, made a few substitutions when it came to tools and hardware (toaster oven for convection oven, wine bottle for rolling pin, determination for experience, etc.), and several hours later was able to enjoy tasty, if tiny, croissants.

So, you can totally bind your own little sketchbook.

Step 1. Assemble Materials

You will need:

• 1 30″ x 22″ sheet of Arches watercolor paper 90 lb. hotpress (coldpress is fine, however its texture makes it a more difficult surface on which to sketch or journal with pen and ink)
• yard stick
• pencil
• tear bar (or straight edge. This is what will give your pages a pretty deckled edge)
• bone folder (if you don’t have one, use a smooth, clean pen or strong dowel. This is to make clean, crisp folds in your pages)
• dremel and fine drill or sanding bit (more traditionally an awl would be used to puncture the pages for the binding, but I happen to adore power tools)
• safety goggles
• scrap cardboard
• linen binder’s thread 4″ (stronger than sewing thread and acid free)
• needle (embroidery needle is fine)
• binder’s tape 2″ (it’s not actually sticky- more like a sturdy strip of cloth)
• super cloth (resembles cheese cloth in appearance, but feels very stiff)
• scissors
• PVA glue (this specific type of glue is important because it is acid-free and remains flexible when dry)
• small flat paintbrush (for applying glue)
• 2 small boards or paint stirrers
• C clamp
• cotton canvas
• chip board
• band-aids

Most of these items should be available at the local art supply store and hardware store.  If the more specific binding supplies are unavailable locally, you can purchase them online.  Lineco makes a lot of nice bookbinding materials.

Step 2. Measure and Tear Paper

Here you will be first measuring and then tearing the individual sheets that will make up the pages of your sketchbook. Each page unfolded will measure 11″ x 4″. One sheet of this watercolor paper will yield 14 of these pages, but you will only need 12.

Lay your sheet of watercolor paper out on a smooth, clean surface, and for Pete’s sake handle it carefully! When transporting it, roll it loosely. When carrying it about, hold it gingerly with your fingertips at diagonal corners. Smudges and puckers are very obvious on smooth, white paper and will litter the blank pages of your future sketchbook lest you heed my warning!

Next, grab your yardstick and pencil, making sure the former is clean and the latter sharpened.

Lightly draw a line lengthwise down the middle. To do this, mark the 11 inch point on the 22 inch sides, and connect using the yardstick to make a straight line.

Then, on the 30 inch edges both top and bottom, mark every 4 inches. Lightly draw your vertical lines using the yardstick. You should have a lightly penciled grid of fourteen 4″ x 11″ rectancles with a two 2″ x 11″ rectangles extra.

Now, grab your tear bar, make sure it’s clean, lay it along each guideline, and carefully tear shortwise along your guidelines. This means 7 tears, 7 4″ x 22″ rectangles each of which should have a penciled guideline at the half-way point. (The picture was not able to pick up the lightly drawn remaining guidelines here.) Also, if you have never used a tear bar, take a test run on a paper grocery bag to get the hang of it.

Next, using the guidelines, tear each of these in half.

Now you will have 14 sheets of 11″ x 4″ watercolor paper. Feel free to set aside and recycle the skinny remainder piece and the two extra sheets of 11″ x 4″. Remember, you only need 12 of these.

Step 3. Fold and Group Paper

Fold each of these 12 sheets in half. Separate them into 3 piles of 4 pages.

Use the bone folder to make the folds crisp by running it down the edge of the fold.

Pretty piles of paper!

Step 4. Mark and Drill Holes

Now you will be marking along the fold of each group of pages the place where you will drill a hole with the dremel through which the binding thread will be sewn.

Align the folded edge with the ruler, and mark at dot at the following measurements: 1/2″, 1″, 1 1/2″, 1 7/8″, 2 1/8″, 2 1/2″, 3″, 3 1/2″. This looks absurd written out, and is a bit of a headache if you don’t mark your ruler. So, unless you’re uptight about marking on your tools, go ahead and mark these points along your ruler as a guide, then mark them on your paper in pencil. The following picture is an example of how I did it. However, I used 17″-21″ inches. You can do that, or 1″-4″ or whatever, as long as the dots are at the correct intervals and consistent between your page groups.

Next, carefully open each page group, keeping them neatly together. Put them face down on the scrap cardboard, slap those stylish safety goggle on your face, and dremel a tiny little hole down the spine of each bundle of pages at the pencil dots. Take care to hold the dremel vertically so that the holes are not drilled through at a slant.

Step 5. Cut Binder’s Tape and Prep Needle

Binder’s tape is an added support for the spine of your book. You only need two little pieces. These will be held in place by the thread until everything is glued into place. The thread not only holds the groups of pages together, but also holds the groups together, forming the spine of your book.

Thread your needle with your 4″ of binder’s thread. Tie the ends together. Binding with doubled thread will make your book stronger and more durable.

Step 6. Binding the Pages

The process of binding the pages together may be frustrating, but persevere! Pay attention to the pictures. The general idea here is to sew up one page group, cross to the next, sew down it, cross to the last group, sew down it, and connect the outward stitches to hold the spine together. Mind the needle. It goes without saying that it is sharp. This obvious fact did not prevent me from inflicting a puncture wound on my left pointer. Notice a band-aid shows up in the pictures along the way.

Now, pick up your first bundle of pages. You will be sewing from right to left, in and out through each hole. Start with putting your needle through the pages so that it pokes out the backside underneath. Then up and out towards you through the next hole and so on down the page. The pieces of binder’s tape need to be placed along the way as well. They belong as follows: the first piece between the 2nd and 3rd holes, the second piece between the 6th and 7th holes. Refer to the picture.

Pull tightly at each end of the thread to tighten up the stitching. You want the binding to be tight so that your pages are held closely together. The first time I did this, I was enraged by not knowing where to place my hands and felt like there was just too bloody much to hold onto at once. Feel free to curse up a a storm, just don’t tear up your pretty paper in disgust.

Next, fold closed your stitched group of pages keeping them pinched in your fingers, pick up the next group, open it part way, and align its holes with the holes and stitching on the first group. The needle will be going down into the first closest hole in the next group.

Now, you repeat the same stitching on this group that you just did on the previous group, but going back the other way with one twist. Literally. Capture the outward visible stitches from the first group. This entwines what would otherwise be two parallel lines of stitching. Think of it as creating a hinge. Out of thread.

Continue to the end of the second group. You’ll have the thread coming out next to where you began on the first group.

Pull the thread to make sure all of your stitching is tight. Don’t pull it ridiculously tight and tear your pages or pop your thread, but make sure everything is nice and taught. Then tie together in a square knot (right over left, left over right). But don’t cut the thread- you’re not done yet! And prepare to repeat.

Close the second group of pages, just like you did with the first. Keep holding all the bound pages together, and pick up the third and final group, open it part way, and line up the holes. From the knot, repeat the sewing pattern, complete with the outward visible stitch capturing. The following picture shows the thread already through the first hole.

Capturing the outward stitches will look less pretty this time around. The idea is just to be creating that thread hinge, to link these stitches together on the outside.

Now that you’ve gotten to the end of the last group, you need to set yourself up for the last phase of the sewing. Since there are no thread tails at the end, simply put the needle under the last outward stitch holding the first two groups, and pull the thread through. Now you’ll be set up to head back the other way. This is where I poked myself.

Now, instead of going in and out of the pages, you will just be going around the outside stitches. This is simply to continue reinforcing. So, close the pages together. Insert the needle under at the left side of the stitches going over the binder’s tape, pull the thread through.

Then insert the needle under the same way at the right end of the same stitches going over the same piece of binder’s tape. Pull the thread through.

You need only go under the middle outward stitches once. Repeat what you did for the first binder’s tape outward facing stitches for the second. Then tie another square knot with the tails from the first. Now, you may cut the thread. Leave around an inch thread tail. Leaving ample tails helps ensure the knots remain secure.

Is it starting to look like a book yet?

Step 7. Cut Super and Prep Glue

Cut out your piece of super. It should be about 1″ x 3 3/4″.

Hold it up along the spine to eyeball the size in case you need to do any trimming. It should be just shy of the length of the spine and wide enough to cover the binding, going comfortably around the spine.

Get out your glue and glue brush and prep your work surface to get a bit messy.

Step 8. Gluing the Spine

First, the binder’s tape flaps are glued, then a layer of glue is applied all over the spine, followed by laying the super, and, lastly, a final smoothing and layer of glue.

To start, load the brush with glue and brush the glue on the underside of the flaps of binder’s tape. Then, push the flaps firmly down onto the paper in such a way that they are holding the spine tightly together. The PVA glue sets rather quickly, so unless you have used an overabundance of glue, the tape flaps should stay put.

Next, apply glue all over the spine, filling in the crevases between page groups. Note: the binding must be tight and page groups flush with each other, otherwise the glue will go too far between the pages. If your binding is loose, be conservative about the glue application here.

Also, lay the thread tails neatly along the spine in the glue.

Next, put the super in place.

Then, push it down into the glue on the spine. The glue will come through and get your fingers a little messy. Just take care not to smear glue all over your paper. I enjoy letting my untidy inner child loose at this point and find it convenient to wipe my hands on my pants. Granted, I’m in my paint pants, but I highly recommend it.

Once the super is in place, brush some glue over the paper where the long flaps of super will curve around. You will be brushing over the binder’s tape that is already in place. Take care, because globbing on the glue may cause the tape to loosen from its placement.

Once the glue has been applied, push the rest of the super down into it around the spine. Smooth everything tightly into place, and apply a light layer of glue over the top of the super, and do a last smoothing down.

Step 9. Clamping and Drying

Now the pages must be clamped tightly together along the spine while the glue sets and dries. For this, you will need the two paint stirrers and your C-clamp.

Lay the stirrers along each side of the book, close to the spine as you can, but not touching any of the glue. Then clamp them in place and prop the whole contraption somewhere safe and free of dust to dry.

Step 10. Measure/Cut Chip Board and Canvas

While your pages dry, you can work on assembling the cover.

Here, you will be cutting your chip board similarly to how you cut your papers. It just needs to be an eensy bit larger, since it is your cover and you want it to adequately protect the pages it will house.

Grab the yard stick and pencil again, and measure and mark a 4 1/4″ x 11 1/2″ rectangle onto the chipboard. Mark a straight line through the half-way point too (5 3/4″) just like with the pages. However, instead of folding like you did with the pages, this piece will be cut.

You will also need a thin strip of the same width for the spine cover. Go ahead and measure out and cut a wee rectangle measuring 4 1/4″ x 3/8″. Here though you will have to eyeball this piece and compare it to the width of your spine. It should be nearly the same width as your spine, but erring on the side of being an iota larger. You don’t want it to be too large otherwise your spine cover will be to wide, giving your sketchbook a slightly triangular profile. The spine cover is the Goldilocks of your your materials. It can’t be too small or too large; it needs to be just right. So, if your spine happens to be wider than the 3/8″ I measured for mine, go ahead and cut a wider one.

Next, unfurl your bit of canvas and place your cut pieces of chip board on it. This will help you trim your canvas to size. The canvas should be 1/4″-1/2″ larger on all sides of your cover layout, because it needs to wrap around the edges. The edges of the canvas, once in place, will be covered by the attached sketchbook pages, so you need not worry too much if your canvas is slightly warped, has frayed edges, or is imprecisely cut.

You should leave between 1 and 2 eighths of an inch between the spine cover and the front and back covers. This space is really determined by the thickness of your canvas and chipboard. You will have to tinker with it. The function of this space is to allow your book to open all the way. As you open a book, the edges of the covers along the spine are pushed together, and the spine cover is pushed out. There needs to be a bit of extra material to allow this movement. If things are too tight, the book doesn’t want to open all the way.

Step 11. Glue Chip Board to Canvas

Once you are comfortable with your layout, grab your brush and glue bottle, apply glue to the chip board, and lay it onto the canvas in its place.

Press the pieces firmly into the canvas.

Note: my spine cover doesn’t have quite the optimal amount of spacing here, so if the pieces look just a scootch close to your eye, you are correct.

Step 12. Trim Corners and Glue Edges

Next up is gluing the edges of the canvas around the edges of the covers. To eliminate extra material and give an overall tidy appearance, trim away the corner squares of the canvas.

Next, using your brush, apply glue to the shorter side flaps of canvas, fold them around the edge of the covers, and press firmly in place.

Then, follow suit with the long top and bottom canvas flaps.

Smooth down all the edges and loose threads, making sure everything is securely glued into place.

If at this point you intend to step away from the project, take a break, or your pages are still needing time to dry, lay something like your tear bar across your covers so they do not curl and warp as they dry. Mind you don’t accidentally glue your weight to the covers though.

Step 13. Glue Pages Into Cover

Once your pages and spine are dry enough, unclamp them and fit them into your cover.

Next, carefully brush glue onto the outsides of your first and last pages, and onto the insides of your front and back covers. Having glue on both sides of each fuse surface will allow you to adjust the placement a little bit.

Press your first and last pages into place, make sure the spine of the pages runs down the center of the spine cover, then close the whole book, make sure everything looks in the right place, lay it closed on the table and press. If you are anxious and need to open it to check how the opening and closing of your new book functions, then place your thumbs on the inside covers near the spine and hold the pages that have been glued to the insides of the covers firmly in place while you open and close the book, otherwise they will slide on the wet glue and cause wrinkles on the wet pages and a headache in your skull.

If you would like to let your book dry at this point, you can reclamp it or set a heavy book on top of it. If you weight it, set it along the edge of a table or counter with the spine just over the edge- this will keep the spine from setting lopsidedly.

Step 14. Details and Flourishes

There are so many metaphors about books and covers, so why not decorate yours? I enjoy using fabric cutouts and gluing them to the front and back covers of my sketchbooks. However, these are covered in canvas, feel free to paint them as well!

If you are using a cut-out or pasting something onto the cover, test the placement first.

Then, brush glue onto the back of it and press it onto the cover, making sure the edges are secure as well. If any of it will go over the edge, wrap it around and pinch into place.

It can be fun to add something to the back cover as well.

Once you are finished, reclamp everything if you haven’t let it completely dry first. You can use a few clothespins to keep your covers from warping and curling out as they dry. Mind you don’t clamp the spine too tightly or use overly springy clips. You don’t want weird dents or divets in your finished cover.

And once it’s dry… admire your work!

And enjoy!

{Visit Jessica anytime at her blog/website, Greenleaf & Blueberry; or take advantage of the amazing things she has made at Greenleaf & Blueberry on Etsy. As you can see, she’s a meticulous artisan whose products are quality, through and through.}